So I have a 2002 Cavalier (Not the best car I’ve ever driven, but it works for now). After some of the other cars I’ve driven, this one seems to need more oomph, I feel like I’m driving a sewing maching if I need to accelerate quickly. Does anybody know of any thing that can be done to give the car a little more performance. I’m not looking for things like installing a turbo or nitrous, but shade tree mechanic type stuff. For example, would installing split/quad fire spark plugs help, addatives that supposedly clean out the injectors etc???
If we’re talking about simple bolt-on mods, sure, go for the Split-Fire plugs and Techron to clean out the fuel system.
Also try a K&N FilterCharger, and if there is one available, headers to replace the stock exhaust manifold.
These mods should be good for a collective increase of perhaps 15-25 horsepower.
Of course, the mods may requirean upgrade to the computer, so get a chip as well.
Note: these do not require you to open up the engine or transmission, though you may need to upgrade the stock fuel filter (in the gas tank) to keep up with higher fuel flow rates.
I’ll 2nd the K&N Filtercharger. I’m sure there is own available. Putting headers on maybe a bit more work than you are looking for. DONT just throw on a muffler with a huge hole in the end. A farting car is not a faster car. A chip would help. You have to put premium in then (usually). The best advice would be to test drive the car before you buy it and make sure its fast enough for you 
This is something of a good news bad news thread with a surprise ending. Most of my knowledge on getting more power out of modern cars comes from research on my current car, a 98 Nissan Maxima. However I am sure much of what I have learned will apply to most new cars.
My first suggestion would be to make sure that everything was tuned up and maintained properly but with a 2002 that probably isn’t an issue. There was a recent thread where someone had an older pick-up and had the same problem.
From what I have seen in my area Cavaliers are approaching the popularity of Civics as far as kids modifying them for performance. This means there will probably be some aftermarket parts available for power upgrades. But most kids are more interested in making their cars look and sound fast and manufactures claims for power gains are optimistic at best and outrages lies at worst. If someone tells you their ‘fart muffler’ gives them 10 hp laugh in their face.
Here are links to a Website dedicated to people who like to modify Cavaliers for performance. A GM message board with specific forums for engines (including the 2.2 ecotec, I assume that is what you have) and models including the Caviler. And a general automotive board that has a ‘Domestic compact’ forum. You may be able to find more information there, but keep the BS filter set on MAX. There are many intelligent posters there also.
http://www.j-body.org/index.php
http://www.gmpowertalk.com/forums/
http://forums.off-topic.net/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=37
In my opinion the best way to get more power is to correct any poor designed elements with the factory engine. Most new cars are pretty well designed but in some cases the manufacturer may sacrifice some power to meet another design goal. Cost, noise and ease of assembly/manufacture are probably high priorities for a car maker. Also the emissions requirements for new cars are much stricter than those for even the strictest states. If giving up a few horsepower would mean the car could be made to qualify for ULEV status (Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle (I think)) many companies would do it. In most states it is illegal to remove any emissions equipment and I would never recommend removing the catalytic converter or do it myself. You would never pass emissions testing and IMO you are hurting the environment for a very small gain. However there are some cases where removing some emissions equipment will give significant gains and the car will still pass in even the toughest states without any changes ;).
Many power ‘mods’ sacrifice low RPM power to get more higher RPM power, the car will be faster overall but much less pleasant for daily driving. However there are some ways of increasing power through out the RPM range or at least improving the top end without sacrificing the low end.
One of the most common mods for a modern car is a ‘chip’, the factory computer chip can be very conservative. A more aggressive aftermarket chip can usually give some gains and usually through the entire RPM range but as dead0man said, you may need to use premium fuel because of more aggressive timing. In the case of my car the factory chip is very well designed and aftermarket companies have had a hard time improving on it :(, I don’t know about the Cavalier.
Other common mods are freer flowing intake and exhaust. The easier an engine can take in air and let out exhaust the more power it will make. With exhaust mods the closer to the engine an exhaust component is the bigger the gains. That is why headers can give a great power gain and a fart muffler gives almost none. Usually replacing the stock intake will give very small gains unless you upgrade the exhaust also, a less restrictive intake works much better with a free flowing exhaust. However, With A quick look at the GMpowertalk board I see that many members feel the stock intake is a poor design and unnecessarily restrictive, so it is possibly that modifying or replacing it may give a couple of HP gain.
For example on my car the stock exhaust has several major restrictions including one area where the pipe is crushed to half it’s diameter just to accommodate a hanger (WTF Nissan?). When my model of Maxima was built (95) it had way more power than anything in its class, in fact Car&Driver (I think)raced a 95 Maxima against a 95 Mustang GT and the Maxima won! Nissan was near bankruptcy at the time and struggling to cut costs, I guess the figured the car had plenty of power and just threw on the cheapest exhaust system they could.
By replacing most of my exhaust with smoother mandrel bent pipes I was able to see a real gain of about 15 HP. On a car with an exhaust system that did not have the major restrictions mine did gains would be much less, like 5-10 HP on a 200HP car. My aftermarket cone intake adds about 5 HP mostly because of the less restrictive exhaust. So my car is about 20HP over the stock 190 or about 10%. If you have the 2.2 ecotec your car is about 115 HP, if you where able to see similar gains it would probably be about 10 HP. On most cars you will not be able to gain much more than this without major modifications like nitrous or a supercharger.
So how much faster is my car? Well a stock 5 speed Maxima will run the quarter mile in the low 15 second range (15.1-15.2). My car should run in the mid 14s (14.6-14.7), about 1/2 second faster. This would be a little over two car lengths at the finish which is a significant victory. At the 1/8 mile mark (more realistic for usable power for the street) my car would be about one car length ahead still a solid win.
For you as far as merging onto a hi way or pulling into heavy traffic I don’t think being one car length ahead is going to make a huge difference but if you can free up a little power I guess it wouldn’t hurt.
Holy crap this is a long post, I wonder if anyone will actually read it. But the moral is make sure a car has enough power before you buy it, and for about the same money you could have had 4 year old Maxima and had all the oomph you could need and then some 
All of these types of mods I can handle. As far as a farting car, I’m not looking for it to look/sound cooler, just want to be able to pass people with out needing (literally) 1/4-1/2 mile to do it. Also not that I care to do burn outs, but I can’t squel(sp?) the wheels on this car even around a turn. I think I’m going to go for the K&N filter but they don’t seem to have anything but an air filter and an oil filter for my particular car. I’m still trying to decide if I want to go for the spark plugs. As far as a new chip, I’m not worried about that right now, those seem to be over $200 and I’m not THAT worried about it. Anymore info would be appriciated. Also I’ve never done much of anywork on an exaust system (once but I was just fixing the check valve that injects O2 into the exaust system to burn unburnt gas) how big of a deal is it to replace the stock exaust parts (manifold??)?
(BTW I don’t want to come off as sounding like I’ve never worked on a car before. I’ve done plently of work on cars before but mostly bigger and older. ie E-250’s, Bronco’s and the like. All '95’s and older. The type where I can change the fuel filter by getting under the car and sitting up, and they don’t have so much stuff in such a little area, so there’s plenty of room to work). Anyways like I said before, any more info is appriciated, but I think for starters I’m going to go for the K&N Filter.
IF you have the twin cam 2.4 liter engine, I’d say take this supercharger into serious consideration. Or maybe sell your almost new Cavalier and buy a faster car.
Actaully I beleive it is a 2.2. This car really wasn’t my first choice. I had a Grand Am that I was fairly happy with and it got totalled. With the money I got from insurance, this car was only a few thousand more, so that’s why we went for it. It’s not something I’d buy another one of.
Well, I never had any problem with my 1997 Cavalier, but it was a 5 speed. I have driven a 4 speed automatic and experienced much the same feel that you describled. The 3 speed automatic was much better, IMO. Driving that rental I would hit the gas and say “I know you can do this, just downshift one more time”.
Regardless, a transmission upgrade is probably out of the question. I’m going to carry on assuming you have the 4 speed automatic. Perhaps you could get a programable computer that can play with the shift points a bit. At highway speeds, it will probably run up close to redline in second, but it won’t downshift to second when you floor it at the same speed. I don’t know about the Cavalier, but they have computers that pretty much enable you to do anything as far as how your car runs (within a certain range of course). However, if you tune for performance, your gas mileage may go down the drain. Perhaps they have a computer smart enough to adjust things toward the performance/economy side based on throttle postion.
I would also recommend the K&N filter. As for splitfires, I have never seen any proof that they provide more horsepower beyond a few thousand miles. What I understand is that as soon as the gap changes on one of the forks, it will function just like a regular spark plug.
Even if they make an aftermarket exhaust manifold (headers) for your car (which I doubt), they woud be expensive and probably a PITA to install. Any exhast component will probably cost over $100 and probably more into the $200 range, except for a cheap universal muffler which would do nothing power wise anyway.
The K&N air filter may help, they sell a replacement for the stock paper filter for most cars if you keep the stock intake system. Or if you get an aftermarket intake system you could get a cone type filter like this - http://images.cardomain.com/installs/207000-207999/207173_19_full.jpg . The cone filter is just behind the battery and the silver tube replaces the factory intake tubing and resonator. Here is a pick of one aftermarket inrake for your car http://www.gmpowertalk.com/forums/attachment.php?postid=264414 , but it costs almost $200.
As I said above other Cavilier owners think the stock airbox is to restrictive. An aftermarket intake would probably cost $100-200 but it looks like you could also modifiy the stock system for some improvement for no cost. However it looks like any modification would eliminate the resonator, they call it ‘the bong’ on their boards. The resonator is designed to reduce intake noise, so make sure the noise level would not be objectional before you do this. I asked over on the GMpower talk board about this for you.
http://www.gmpowertalk.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=24738
Notes from Subaru Land: Normally, you wouldn’t have to modify anything to remove an intake silencer (we Scoobies call it a “snorkus” instead of a “bong”, but it sounds like the same thing). It’s just the first stage of the intake system. The second stage is the box that holds the filter. So, if you don’t want to pull the whole intake assembly and throw on a CAI, you can take off the “bong”, drop in a K&N filter, and be good to go.
As far as the noise, it will be louder. It won’t be “coffee can muffler” loud and annoying, but it will be louder. If quiet is something you value in your car, removing an intake silencer is not a good way to go.
I notice that on the other board, they mention picking up a Civic CAI and slapping it on your Cavalier. I would try to avoid this. Most of the time CAIs are engineered specifically for a particular engine, and modifying the way air enters the engine incorrectly can actually give you worse performance.
I am sure all cars vary somewhat, my car has (or had) two intake resonators, one off the first stage of the intake system and a second resonator inline with the intake tube in between the MAF and throttle body.
Even with both resonators removed my car sounds near stock when driving normaly. However when I give it a lot of throttle and let the RPMs climb it really roars. From the response on the GM board I think you will have similer results. Of corse you may be using heavy throttle a lot in your normal driving becuase the car is somewhat underpowered.
Most car enthusiests consider this intake roar an added benifit but you may not. Since all it takes is a little time and can be put back if you don’t like it I would say why not try it.
Another idea - If you have an automatic you may want to try shifting it manually when you want to accelerate quickly to keep the engine at higher RPMs where there is more power.